On September 13, 2012, two days after US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in a terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, Libyan President Mohamed Yusuf al-Magariaf sends a request to the Clinton Foundation, expressing interest in attending a Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting later that month in New York. Foundation official Amitabh Desai then emails Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff Cheryl Mills for guidance, asking, “Would [the US government] have concerns about Libyan President being invited to CGI? Odd timing, I know.” Mills replies that same day that the State Department “would not have issues.”

On September 17, Desai emails Mills again, specifically asking if al-Magariaf could meet with former President Bill Clinton at the CGI meeting. Mills apparently has no objection, because Desai tells Mills on September 26 that al-Magariaf and Bill Clinton had a ‘very good meeting.” Hillary Clinton also meets al-Magariaf for the first time around this time, on September 24. (LawNewz, 3/22/2016) (US Department of State, 3/14/2016)